摘要：This paper questions the persistent prescription, which has now also received a fillipfrom "new science", for corporations to be more like organisms, especially in responseto turbulence in the business environment such as exists in present times. We contendthat another outcome of the prevailing turbulence, the trend towards the organizationalcareer being outmoded, is particularly ironic because the organizational career, weargue, has been the organizing device that helped corporations become organism-likeand more. It has done so in three significant ways: in developing the capacity to outlivetheir constituent individuals, just as multi-cellular organisms outlive their cells; in devel-oping purposefulness¡ªthe capacity to choose and set goals of one's own accord; andin developing even higher flexibility than organisms. Finally, alluding to misgivings aboutprospective organism-like physical artifacts, the paper suggests deeper studies on thesocial artifact, the corporation, as being already too organism-like
